Cross Case Features: Teachers

Montview High School: Media

Hannah Moss, Media Specialist

Hannah Moss, who is the Media Specialist at Montview High School, attended the NCTA seminar with several other teachers from Montview. Hannah liked the once-a-week format of the seminar because it provided an opportunity for discussion with her colleagues. In addition to taking the NCTA seminar, Hannah Moss visited China on a study tour and took a Fulbright tour of Japan.

Development of Asian Resource Center

When the teachers pooled the funds that NCTA provided for Asian resources, Hannah Moss chose most of the materials for the Asian Resource Center and then had her staff compile a 37-page printout of all of the Asian materials. One of the NCTA teachers commented, “That entire collection basically came from all that mini-grant money that we had. A lot of that has supported what we have done. It is a resource for us and, of course, the English teachers use it when they do the China and Japan project.”

By highlighting the Asia resources in one section of the media center, Hannah Moss draws students’ attention to the Asian materials. For example, she helped one student find prints and colors to decorate a room with an Asian motif. Some students who are exposed to a section of a fiction book in their ninth-grade English unit on China and Japan eventually check it out so they can read the entire book.

Work on Curriculum Development

Hannah Moss says that receiving the money for resource materials also encourages curriculum development because teachers feel that “we can’t [the resources] go to waste.” After the NCTA seminar, Hannah Moss collaborated with Catherine Styne, the Humanities Chair and a fellow NCTA participant, on the development of a three-week unit on China and Japan for the freshman English classes. Hannah Moss conducts two days of this unit. She focuses on the art of China and Japan, drawing on her experiences in traveling to China and Japan and using artifacts from these travels. One of the English teachers said that her sharing of artifacts from her trips to Asia, “Really puts a face on the whole other side of the world.”

Communication with Teachers and Administrators

Teachers, administrators, and district leaders point to Hannah Moss, who will not retire for another five years, as the one keeping Asian Studies strong at the high school. The principal notes that Hannah Moss “will come down from time to time and keep me in the loop. She will explain to me where she is going and give me a schedule of the classes.” Hannah Moss says that an important component of their past success was the number of people from Montview who took the NCTA seminar and the collegiality that developed. “Now we have enough people on board and it has been in place long enough so that even the people who haven’t taken it know that it is something we do. I will keep after those people who have not taken it.”